Introduction

One of the subjects that goes hand-in-hand with performance management is that of motivation—that is to say, management is often said to be all about “motivating people” to do their best work, using carrots and sticks as necessary to “keep people motivated.” In fact, according to many management books, performance and motivation are essentially the same thing—high motivation, high performance, or so the theory goes.

As we’ve been exploring, performance management is much more than just “motivating people,” but that said, it’s fairly self-evident that motivation plays a big factor across the entire cycle. If your team is motivated, but low performing, they will be eager to figure out how to do better, and with the right coaching, their performance will improve. If, on the other hand, you have a high-performing team with poor motivation, their performance will taper off and crash.

Thus, it’s important to understand some fundamental truths of motivation.